French rugby has offered itself a second prestigious victory on the European scene on Saturday afternoon.
Stade Toulousain, current leader of the Top 14, disposed of Munster in the den of the Irish by a score of 40-33 for the round of 16 of the European Rugby Cup.
And the bill could have been higher if the visitors had not conceded a fourth try in the dying seconds of the match.
The meeting had started badly for Toulouse.
Despite three penalties entered by the opening half Romain Ntamack, the visitors finished the first half with seven points behind (16-9), the fault of two tries in quick succession by Irish winger Keith Earls.
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As soon as he returned from the locker room, Matthis Lebel sounded the revolt for Toulouse by registering a precious try which allowed his family to return to equality.
A test from the third row Gavin Coombes gave the locals a head start a few minutes later but Julien Marchand responded immediately.
In the last quarter of an hour, the hinge formed by Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack offers victory to Stade Toulousain.
The scrum-half crossed the opposing line twice in the space of ten minutes and saw his two tries transformed by the opener.
At the end of regulation time, Toulouse leads 40-26 but Munster manages to reduce the gap in the last moments of the meeting, again thanks to Gavin Coombes.
𝘼 𝙡𝙖 𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙚!
👋🏼💥
Explosion of joy in the locker room at Thomond Park after a historic victory against Munster 🤩
Nice thought as a bonus for our unfortunate absent @SoGuitoune ♥ ️🖤 # MUNST #MissionMunster #ALaConqueteDesEtoiles pic.twitter.com/mRijInytdr
- Stade Toulousain (@StadeToulousain) April 3, 2021
There will therefore be at least one French team in the last four of this European Rugby Cup.
After their resounding victory on Irish soil, the current leaders of the Top 14 will face in the quarter-finals Clermont, who won at the very end of the match on the field of Wasps (27-25) earlier in the day.
In addition to these two clubs, France will also be represented by La Rochelle in the next round of the competition, pending the results of the matches in Lyon this Saturday and Bordeaux-Bègles and Racing 92 this Sunday.
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The most sacred French club in the competition with four trophies, Toulouse has not won the European title since 2010 while ASM Clermont reached the final three times between 2013 and 2017. The last French coronation dates back to 2015 and the third consecutive title for RC Toulon which was eliminated on the green carpet this year due to a positive Covid case in its ranks.
